is there a resource available to figure out what the “most important” “most effective” yoga postures are? from my studies the restorative pose, headstand, of course meditatvie postures etc… are very important. I understand that if I am not ready for a headstand then that will be a bad posture for me and counter productive to my intention. The reason I ask, we have chakras and things of the such, I would like to make sure I do asanas in most every session that will target all charkras, nerve centers, nadis, or things of the such. My question may be incomplete, but it is where I am at.
thanks
seeker
Based on what seems to be your desire to create a home practice that is multidimensional, created for your unique needs and goals, as well as respecting where you are in your asana practice, my best recommendation is that you see a Yoga therapist in a private session. I can recommend any Structural Yoga Therapist because their training with Mukunda is my own and I know how closely we work with Mukunda even after our SYT training has ended. Yogatherapycenter.org : : Certified Structural Yoga Therapists? You could contact any SYT from this list with your ideas of what you would like for yourself; they will gladly tell you over the phone if they can assist you.
Kind wishes for your search,
Are you willing to practice asana 8 hours per day?
Hi Seeker,
Categorising the Chakras is a way for us to better understand them, but in Truth the chakras are all just one. When you meditate on them and start to peceive them in the inner eye, they appear as one, so although some asanas are associated with a specific chakra, I belief that the overall affect is on the whole system, as they are integrated. This is just my view and may be different for you.
I have an instructor that seems to be very knowledgeable, the hard part I may have is explaining my question clearly on this subject. I will be asking him this question again untill I am satisfied with the answer, it may not be the answer I initially seek and if that is the case then it is the case, my ego will have to accept that.
I will dive deeper into my question
if I were to twirl my finger in circles we could call this an asana and maybe this is the exact asana I need and the best asana for me that I could do at this moment in time, we are all on a different path.
Now if I do a headstand this could be the exact wrong asana for me to do at this point in my practice
what I have seem to come across though is that the headstand is widely considered on of, if not the best asana, this of course would be assuming that a meditative pose achieves meditation and therefore would no longer classify as an asana.
If we were to assume someone is healthy and in the “system” of yoga that a headstand has more of an effect then a finger twirl then to me this would represent a scale or some kind of class system. So if I were to say, and maybe wrongfully so, that headstand is king, maybe shoulderstand is queen, then there is a prince, etc… and finger twirl may be a servant so to speak. I would be a fool however to overlook the value of a servant.
my instructor seems to believe OM is the supreme mantra so it would rank as number one, assuming we use a number system which may not always be aplicable and correct. OM seems to be regarded more high and it seems to me that he is saying it is the mantra from which all mantras are born. Does that statement have relivance to my question, I believe on some scale but to how big of the scale i am not sure.
thanks for your replies I will reread and ponder the insight you have chosen to convey, I value your time. 
I look forward to the responses I get on this forum, maybe I need to practice non attachment
thanks for having me to probe deeper
seeker
neil lachowicz
Hello again Ts. You did not, of course, respond to my question:-) No problem.
Are you aware that asana is just over a hundred years old? If you are asking about the system primarily attributed to Iyengar then know that he has said if he could only practice three asana it would be Sirsasana, Sarvangasana, and Savasana (in that order).
Previous to the codification of postures I presume there was only padmasana, though I was not alive so I am taking the word of my lineage. Asana is design to heal the physical body and to occupy the mind of the practitioner. The “best” asana for you (or me) would vary from day to day, hour to hour, moment to moment and you and I would have different sets of asanas as we are different human beings.
It is what is left over after the asana that best allows us as a practitioner to know what it was for us.
It is also commonly thought that whatever poses you are avoiding are the one’s you are needing, until you break through the veil of ignorance that tends to surround us all.
Nichole
no structural therapists in florida from that website, so for now that rules out that possiblity. When I call “yoga centers” one of the first questions I ask is if they are familar with the kriyas of yoga, the one who said yes to that question is the one whom I go to now. It saved me a lot of time
IA, ideally I woudl do asanas for all hours of the day, when waking being mindful of how I stand, walk, sit, etc… in my matt time I would be mindful there as well, when I sleep I try to fall asleep in corpse pose when I can, if I wake up in the middle of the night I sometimes lie back down in corpse pose and do breathing exercise till I fall back asleep. Now do I have 8 hours to spend on a matt, I am not at that point in my life where I have the motivation to do such a thing.
Pandara, I hear what you are saying and it makes sense, we are one body, not many, and to unify all parts would be “ideal”. To unify the chakras as one system makes a lot of sense to me. supposedly my teacher believes I Have a couple blocks and I am working on things to open up those blocks.
This question is more then one part. One is I seek education, another is I seek incoperation. The answer I would idealy like to find is not what someone like ivanger says, but more ancient texts. I have a copy of the hathapradipika, patanjalia’s sutras, am getting, what I think to be a classical text on tantric. It seems that teachers of today may be too verbose sometimes, too many books and leaves a person scratchign their heads. I am looking more for the “old school” if you know what I mean.
if i lived in a world that I want, I would be gone right now studying under a guru in a cave or something away from many things that I dont really need or something like that. But maybe God wants me to find my path amidst the chaos of the city, since I am in the city I might as well use the computer as a resource and that is why I ask this question on here. At the least I will have a better refined question come monday.
take care
seeker
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;7899]Hello again Ts. You did not, of course, respond to my question:-) No problem.
QUOTE]
if your post was five minutes later… 
Hi Neil,
I hear what you are saying. For eample, I am not fond of the headstand and for me it is not a very nice asana, so I rather avoid it and only do it occasionally or when I feel the need for it. What I learned over the years is to listen, your body will tell you what is the best for you and what not. I love for example the Chakra Pose, but you know what there were times when I thought I would do it now, and my body just didn’t allow it. So, I have learned over the years to rather feel my way through my own practice, rather than listening to others and what other people profess to be the best. With this I don’t say heed good advice and the rules yoga, but just learn to listen as well and combine your own inner wisdom with the knowledge of others.
You inner guidance is eventually the one you should listen to as it knows best for you.
Om Namast
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;7899]Hello again Ts. You did not, of course, respond to my question:-) No problem.
Are you aware that asana is just over a hundred years old? If you are asking about the system primarily attributed to Iyengar then know that he has said if he could only practice three asana it would be Sirsasana, Sarvangasana, and Savasana (in that order).
[/QUOTE]
the hatha pradipika was written in the 15th century? if so the above statement would be false due to the hatha pradipika having asanas in it? I ask these as questions because I could be wrong.
Pandara, I belive I do hear your words and I believe they do hold great truth. thanks for your response again my big teddy bear
Which asanas are codified in the HYP? (which also presumes one follows the HYP as a guide, though some do not).
when I get time to research into the book more I will list some of the asanas it has in it, I have some of them underlined in my copy of it.
isnt the hathapradipika where hatha yoga comes from? What would be the rules/guidelines to consider of what is worthy of being a guide and what is not? According to you, asanas came about 100 years ago, where did they originate from? what is your source of authenticity as to when asanas originated?
thanks
seeker
some of the postures in the hatha pradipika
padmasana
kukkutasana
dhanarasana
matsyendrasana
shavasana
mayurasana
uttuanakurmasana
svaitikasana
sidha, pudma, simha, bhudra asanas, sitting/meditative poses
in the hatha pradipika it says shiva taught 84 asanas
I may list the rest of the asanas in the hatha pradipika at a later time when I get them all outlined
thanks for your questions IA, they inspire me to probe deeper
seeker
As I understand it, yoga “comes from” a verbal rather than written lineage. It was passed in an oral tradition from teacher to student. Depending to what degree one might embrace that concept, the written material, other than Sri Aurobindo, would be worth less.
<wink>
[QUOTE=tubeseeker;7927]when I get time to research into the book more I will list some of the asanas it has in it, I have some of them underlined in my copy of it.
isnt the hathapradipika where hatha yoga comes from? What would be the rules/guidelines to consider of what is worthy of being a guide and what is not? According to you, asanas came about 100 years ago, where did they originate from? what is your source of authenticity as to when asanas originated?
thanks
seeker[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;7935]As I understand it, yoga “comes from” a verbal rather than written lineage. It was passed in an oral tradition from teacher to student. Depending to what degree one might embrace that concept, the written material, other than Sri Aurobindo, would be worth less.
<wink>[/QUOTE]
and why is Sri aurobindo the only worth while authority of written text of yoga?, how far have you researched this statement?
just to the tip of my proboscis
Hi all,
Patanjali talk about asana in his sutra, +/- 500bc. I think it would be safe to say asana are 2000 to 5000 year old…
On this page, you’ll find a picture of a terracotta bas-relief - second from the right bottom - from the Harappan (5500-1500 BC)/Mohenjo Daro period (2600 BC), what clearly shows a human figure in Baddha Konasana. Damaru’s assumption is most likely correct.
patanjalia lists the 8 limbs of yoga in his sutras, asanas is one of those limbs he lists. I can find it in the sutras but I dont have my book on me at the moment, I think it is somewhere around 2, 30 that he lists the limbs, If I remember I will check.
this is my theory, not originated by me but what I have come into agreeance with
if your posture is suitable and you maintain perfect posture, there would be no need to do the “asanas” If you are quiet and steady when meditating with the energy channels open for flow then why practice down dog or tree pose, your time would be better spent in meditation since you do not “need” those poses. SO those who do not have the steady pose down may need to work on asanas untill they reach a state where they are no longer necessary to work on. I will let you know when I get there
seeker
Neil, you’re right that one asana is enough in order to meditate. Now, because to be succesful, the most of us are required a great amount of time spent in meditation, first, the chosen posture must be mastered, what means one must be able to maintain the pose, without too much diffculty, for three hours - Sivananda tradition, don’t ask me why they state this amount, but I think they know what they are talking-, and second, one probably will have more than one sessions per day. This means that the physical body is set to an endurance test, also spending this much time in a posture is unnatural - experienced yogis will confirm this. So the other postures, asanas are first to make your body able to withstand this requirement, and the second, they are there to counter the sideeffects preventing the accumulation of exhaustion, and the resulting stiffness.